Illinois men's tennis returns home to face UNC, Northern Kentucky and Duke this weekend. On Saturday the Illini will play against Duke at noon followed by their first match ever Northern Kentucky at noon. On Sunday they will take on the Tar Heels at noon. 

Illinois is 16-8 all time against the Blue Devils and won the last matchup in Atkins 6-1 in 2019. The Illini have had less program success against UNC, trailing the all-time series 4-10. 

Last Time Out

Last weekend, the Illini dropped matches on the road against No. 20 Michgan and Notre Dame.

In The Rankings

The Illini were unranked but receiving votes in the latest ITA Coaches Poll. In the singles rankings, released Wed. (Feb. 9) graduate transfer Olivier Stuart moved up from 97 to No. 63. The doubles pairing of Hunter Heck and Lucas Horve moved into the rankings at No. 57.

B1G Champs

Illinois was the first Big Ten West Division Title winner last season. Following the regular season championship Illinois was a no. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament. The defeated Indiana 4-0 before matching up against Michigan in the semifinals. Illinois battled back to defeated the Wolverines 4-2. In the finals they were up against OSU, who they lost two in the regular season. The match lasted over three hours and the Illinois came out with the 4-3 win.

Key Pieces Return

Alex Brown, Hunter Heck, Kweisi Kenyatte, and Siphosothando Montsi all return to the team in 2022. Brown was an All-American in 2020 and played doubles no. 1 and singles no. 2 for Illinois last season. Monsti, who reached the Sweet 16 last season in the singles tournament and was named and All-American after posting a 16-3 singles record during the season is back. Kenyatte missed the second half of the season with an injury but had a couple key wins for Illinois including in their season opening upset of No. 1 USC. After a successful freshman season where his comeback win 0-6, 6-3, 7-5 against JJ Tracy who had been undefeated until then gave Illinois a point in the Big Ten Championship.

New Faces

Last season fifth year seniors  Zeke Clark, Aleks Kovacevic, and Noe Khilf played big roles in the teams success. To fill the holes left but the graduated senior Brad Dancer and assistant coach March Asse brought in four new Illini. The first was Mercer transfer Olivier Stuart who played four years at Mercer before sitting out last season and transferred to the Illini. Stuart is joined by freshmen Gabrielius Guzauskas, Will Mroz and Karlis Ozolins.

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